POLL: Not to get all Blagojevich...

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

but I have a hand in picking some of the books around here and I can be influenced. But for now, let's try this democracy thing and tell me what you would like us to read. http://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/46...


EDIT: Click on the 'comments and details' link below the voting buttons for book thumbnails w/ links. :)

[Jason, Walking Allergen]

The Magic Mountain

Growth of the Soil

Middlemarch

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Heather wrote: "I don't know any of those books. Can you put links to them in this discussion thread so I can read about them? I think you can also put links in the poll somehow, but I'm not sure how."
Hmmm...when I made the poll and looked at it, below the voting buttons was a little area that said "This poll is about" and then there were thumbnails of and links to the books' pages. Are those not there for everybody?

[Jason, Walking Allergen]

Nope, not there for me.

[Jim]

Click "Comments and Details" below and to the right of the poll choices. You'll get book cover thumbnails which, when clicked, will take you to the corresponding Goodreads page.

[Jim]

"Matt's got this thing and it's f**kin' golden, and he ain't gonna just give it away for nothin'."

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jim wrote: ""Matt's got this thing and it's f**kin' golden, and he ain't gonna just give it away for nothin'.""
I was racking my brains trying to figure out which episode of The Wire that came from...then realized it was Blago. Ick.

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

I voted for Magic Mountain... Jen's read Middlemarch and it sounded like an utter slog.

As for Growth of the Soil, I couldn't find a description that made it sound like more than 400+ pages of digging. Maybe someday.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Dave wrote: "As for Growth of the Soil, I couldn't find a description that made it sound like more than 400+ pages of digging. Maybe someday."
I was going off of the Nobel prize. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_o...
I guess I'll read it on my own.

[Jason, Walking Allergen]

Matt, did you realize that The Magic Mountain is 700 pages long? Not saying we couldn't do it, but it's a lot longer than what we've been doing so far.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jason wrote: "Matt, did you realize that The Magic Mountain is 700 pages long? Not saying we couldn't do it, but it's a lot longer than what we've been doing so far."

I did. So far, I've been crushing the 85-100 pages a week, so I thought we could up the ante a bit. If people are concerned about the length, I hope they let us know here. :)

[Jason, Walking Allergen]

Matt wrote: "I was going off of the Nobel prize. :)"

That might be a topic worth bringing up for the show: the usefulness of a Nobel Prize in Literature as a gauge of quality...

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jason wrote: "That might be a topic worth bringing up for the show: the usefulness of a Nobel Prize in Literature as a gauge of quality..."
Most definitely. :)

[Devin]

I just voted for Middlemarch. And I'm the only one. But it's all about the process. Hooray for democracy!

[Jen]

Dave's right; I read MIDDLEMARCH about 2 years ago. It took me 9 full months to get through it, but that could just be me. I tend not to fly through any Victorian-era literature; something about the writing style common at that time just creates a mental block for me. I am glad I read it, though, and I did finish it!

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Forgot to update on this, sorry. So, The Magic Mountain was the clear winner. It is in the queue, but we're not going to schedule it for a while because we'd like to stick with some shorter works while we're building our Goodreads community. As Princess Irulan said in the "Manual of Muad'Dib" from Dune, "A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct." See? I can read genre fiction! ;)
Thanks for your votes and your understanding.